Master and Apprentice (38 page)

I started down the tunnel, still holding the gun ready, listening for any hint of life or movement. Only the faint crunch of our feet on the earth and my own shallow breathing reached my ears. The occasional muffled gunshot from the surface sounded like branches breaking. I couldn’t help worrying about them, the young scions, and Mercy. With Vaelyn out of the way and Nurien occupied, Tory and Calvin would be all right. The rest of them didn’t enjoy virtual immortality. And I couldn’t make any more miraculous saves, like I’d done with Kit.

I packed away grisly images of twisted, bullet-riddled bodies and faces too young to die. Time to concentrate on the here and now, on the strange stillness that shouldn’t have been. In my experience, this kind of quiet screamed
trap.

The tunnel continued unchanging. Same packed walls,
same width and height, same torches and pockets of shadow that granted a moment of blindness while we moved through them. The heavy scent of earth permeated the cool air, traced with an ozone whisper of blood. I glanced back at Ian, beyond him. Couldn’t see the landing anymore.

But ahead of us, still nothing.

“I don’t like this,” I murmured. “Any minute now, we’re going to fall through a pit onto a bunch of spikes, or a giant boulder’s going to roll through and crush us. Or we’ll step on a hidden switch and release the poison darts. Or—”

“Where do you get such ideas?” Ian cut in.

“Indiana Jones,” I said. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen any of those.”

“What is an Indiana Jones?”

I stifled a laugh. “Man, you really need to get out more. They’re movies. Entertainment. You know, fun?”

“Giant crushing boulders and poison darts do not sound like fun to me.”

I stared at him. He returned the look with blank features—and then a corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk.

“Holy shit. You’re making a joke?” I grinned. “There’s hope for you yet, Ian. Maybe you won’t need that operation after all.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Operation?”

“To take the stick out of your ass.”

Soft laughter escaped him. “Yes. Perhaps.”

We passed through the next dark stretch. When we entered the light again, the tunnel ended abruptly in a wall of solid earth, a few feet beyond the torch.

“Great.” I walked up to it and stopped. The tunnel branched to the left and right, both directions sloping down, both paths identical in appearance to the one we stood in. “Just go straight down to the temple. Sure. Now what do we do?”

Ian joined me and glanced down both ways. “I do not know. I still sense nothing.”

“Oh, this is gonna be fun.” I got a blade out and crouched. “Do you care which way we go?”

“I suppose not.”

“Okay. We’re going left.” Might as well mix things up a little. I scratched a thick arrow into the dirt, pointing left. “Let’s try it. If we run into a dead end, at least we’ll know where we’ve already been.”

We headed down the left-hand tunnel. Eventually, another wall loomed out of the shadows—and this time there were three corridors branching away. Every direction looked the same. “Shit!” I palmed the blade again. “You pick one this time.”

Ian pointed down one that slanted away to the right. I marked an arrow, and we kept going. Only to find another wall, and more turns into more identical tunnels.

“This is ridiculous,” Ian said. “There is nothing straight here.”

I sighed. “Let’s give it a few more turns. If we don’t find anything, we’ll follow the arrows back.” And probably get lost in the other direction. I didn’t mention that idea—no doubt Ian was thinking the same thing.

Three random passages later, the tunnel no longer sloped down—it was rising again. After we crossed a few stretches of light and dark, I made out a whiter glow beyond the next pool of torchlight. A lightbulb. For some reason, the sight of it didn’t inspire the hope that we’d found the temple.

I slowed as we neared it, and stopped at the edge of a landing that looked exactly the same as the one we’d come down. A glance at the ground confirmed what I feared: the dark splash of blood under the lightbulb. My blood.

It had been a trap. Not crippling or deadly, but a trap all the same.

Ian let out a frustrated snarl. “Blasted coward! How like Nurien to conceal himself rather than confront his enemies. He does not have the strength to face a warrior.”

“Rather deal with the crushing boulder, huh?” I muttered. “Yeah, me too.” It was cowardly, all right—but it was effective. We’d have to search all the tunnels, and continue marking them so we didn’t keep going the same wrong way. It’d probably take a while. And I was pretty sure time was the one thing we didn’t have.

Before I could suggest getting back on the horse and trying again, a muted whisper sounded close by. I swung the gun up and swiveled toward the closest shadow. “Who’s there?” I said.

As if anyone trying to sneak up on us would’ve answered me.

Ian shook his head and pointed. “Your pocket.”

“Oh. Right.” His hearing was still better than mine. I fished out my cell phone, expecting Calvin. For once I was right about something. “You guys okay up there?” I asked his weak reflection in the faceplate.

“So far. Is the prince still with you?” Concern and faint horror stitched his features, and dark patterns splashed his face. It took me a second to realize what it was—blood.

“Yeah,” I said. “What happened?”

“This is not my blood.” He closed his eyes, crossed himself. “I have information for you. About Nurien.”

Jesus.
Somehow I understood what had happened. He’d tortured one of the scions to find out whatever he knew. “Go ahead,” I managed.

“The so-called surprise he had planned for Gahiji-an. He is …” Calvin stopped and swallowed hard. “He is in the midst of a bonding ceremony. With the princess.”

I glanced at Ian. He hadn’t made a sound, but his rigid stance and furious expression said he was barely holding himself in check. “Okay,” I said to Calvin. “So he hasn’t finished it yet, right?”

“Correct.”

“And he’s definitely in this temple Kit mentioned?”

“Yes. He also knows you’re here and seeking him.” There was a broken moan in the background, and Calvin blanched. “We’ve dispatched all but four of the elders, and searched everything on the surface. The rest, we assume, are down below.”

“I guess that makes them our problem,” I said. “Listen, don’t let anyone—including Tory—come down here. You’ve done enough already, and I’m sure you have some damage control to take care of up there.”

He nodded. I didn’t press for details.

“Khalyn …” Ian’s voice wavered between rage and sorrow. “Thank you.”

“Yes. Just be certain you put this information to good use,
rayan.
” He flashed a quick, sad smile, and the reflection vanished.

Ian glared down the right-hand tunnel, practically burning a path in the air. “Oh, I will,” he said in a simmering growl. “I will.”

In that moment, I was extremely grateful not to be Nurien.

T
his time, we took the tunnel at a run.

“You are certain about this?” Ian said.

“No.” I wasn’t sure about anything, except that Kit wouldn’t have lied to me. He’d said to take the tunnel straight down, and that was what we were going to do. Whether or not there was a wall in the way.

When the first obstruction came into view, I slowed and stopped. The arrow was still scratched into the dirt at my feet. “Okay,” I said. “Straight is that way, so we’re going through this thing.”

Ian frowned. “Did you not say you required blood to pass through the earth?”

“Yeah. I’m not gonna try that here.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Not sure yet.” I’d shaped dirt before, so I thought maybe I could move things around and make a hole. Of course, if I was wrong and the temple wasn’t this way, I could be digging through for a long time. I flexed a hand and pressed it against the wall.

It went right through like there was nothing there.

Startled by the lack of resistance, I lost my balance, pitched forward, and landed on my hands and knees. Even though my eyes were open, I couldn’t see a damned thing. I backed up until the lights came on again and got to my feet. “I don’t think we’ll need blood for this,” I said. “It’s an illusion.”

Ian scowled and thrust his arm through the wall. “A childish defense,” he said. “Nurien mocks us. He does not believe we are important enough to deal with properly.”

“Well, it bought him some time. Maybe that’s all he’s after.” I knew better than to get into a discussion about djinn politics with Ian. “There’s no more light on the other side. You should probably make one of those flame-ball things.” I went through pockets and located the battered flashlight I’d dropped in the mud half a dozen times. The lens and the barrel were scratched to hell, but a steady beam still shone from the end when I switched it on.

Ian extended a hand and produced a globe of white flame. “Ready.”

“Let’s move.” I walked at the wall, through the wall, half expecting a spike pit or poison darts after all. Nothing happened. I played the flashlight beam around the darkness on the other side. Same packed earth, same tunnel dimensions. The light ran ahead a few dozen feet and dissolved in blackness.

We settled at a fast stroll, and I tried to think ahead a little. I almost didn’t say anything to Ian, because I knew the subject was a tough one, but there were a few things it’d help to know. “How long does this bonding ceremony take?”

Ian bristled. “Several hours.”

“Okay.” It would’ve been nice to think we had time, but we had no idea when he’d started. “How does it work? If it takes a lot of power, maybe he’ll be drained by the time we find him.”
If
we found him. We didn’t know anything about this temple thing.

“It is a sharing of blood, of life.” The words dragged out of him like he’d rather eat a handful of thumbtacks than think about it. “The spells involved do not require a great deal of magic. The time, the commitment, is more important.” He let out a breath. “There is typically an official present to perform the ceremony. A ranking member of the clan. It is possible to proceed without one, but it takes longer that way.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” I said. “I mean, there aren’t any ranking members of any clan around here. Right?”

“No. There are not.”

The pain in his voice stung me. “We’ll find them,” I said, with a lot more confidence than I felt. “We’ll get Akila back. And if he finishes the ceremony before we get there, we’ll just destroy the bastard, and the bond will break. If one dies, the rings shatter. Right?”

Ian didn’t respond.

I decided to change the subject. Before I could think of anything brilliant to say, my light found another wall of earth straight ahead. I frowned, walked up to it, and stuck a hand out. It passed through without resistance. “How original,” I said. “I guess he really does think we’re stupid.”

“Yes. Nurien’s arrogance leaves little room for strategy.”

“So we keep going.” I moved through the illusion without waiting for Ian’s agreement.

By the time I realized there was nothing under my feet on the other side, I was already falling.

My warning shout cut itself short when I hit the ground hard enough to drive the breath from me, then bounced a foot and started rolling. The lightless tunnel dove down at a steep incline. Protrusions that might’ve been rough steps battered me into an erratic tumble, preventing me from slowing my descent. I tried digging the end of the flashlight
into something to stop the momentum—and only managed to vault myself airborne.

I finally crashed to a stop with my face in the dirt and one leg jammed against the tunnel wall. Various bruises and scrapes throbbed in sync with my pounding heart, but nothing seemed broken. Except my pride. I groaned, shuffled into a semiupright position, and spat out a mouthful of sludge. “That sucked,” I muttered.

A blurred patch of light approached me, with Ian behind it. His lips twisted into a crooked smile. “Interesting strategy, thief,” he said. “Did you perhaps intend to beat the steps into submission?”

“How’d you guess?” I got my feet under me and tried to brush myself off. “At least there weren’t a bunch of spikes at the bottom. Christ.” I directed the flashlight beam back the way I’d fallen. The incline was so steep, I could make out only about five feet of tunnel before the ceiling got in the way. “When Kit said down, he really meant
down.
How far d’you think that went?”

He shrugged. “Perhaps thirty meters.”

“And how far is that in plain, normal distance?”

Ian rolled his eyes. “I believe it would be approximately one hundred feet.”

I gave a low whistle, winced, and rubbed the back of my head, where a good-size knot had formed at the base of my skull. “We’re pretty far underground,” I said. “Have to be getting close to the place.”

“Yes,” Ian said slowly. “Though I still do not sense anything.”

“Well, they did say things were well protected here.” I took a minute to heal the worst of the damage. Without knowing my own limits, I wanted to use as little power as possible until we had to confront Nurien, or the other elders. “We should
get going. Um … but let’s slow down a little. I think I’ve had enough falling for one day.”

Ian declined to comment, but his smirk resurfaced.

The tunnel stayed fairly flat and even for a while. We didn’t run into any more illusion walls. Eventually, something changed. The tunnel was getting taller and wider. And brighter.

A faint, distant glow loomed ahead. We slowed by unspoken consent, and soon made out two blue-flamelit torches mounted in the floor, at either side of an opening. Beyond the torches, a dingy gray light revealed part of a cavern and some kind of pattern sculpted into the far wall. It almost looked like a couple of columns. Nothing moved where we could see, and there was no sound. Not a scratch or a scuff or a single breath.

But that didn’t mean the place was empty. Nurien was expecting us. There had to be guards somewhere. Four elders left. I was sure we’d run into them before Nurien.